Airtel widens operating edge over Jio in July-September

Airtel’s Q2 performance highlights a sharper improvement in operating leverage compared to Jio, with new mobile revenue translating more efficiently into profitability, analysts said.

This stems from Airtel’s focus on premium users and tighter operating discipline. “Incremental Ebitda margin for mobile business was 94%, which is positive and shows discipline on opex,” analysts from ICICI Securities noted. Jio’s comparable incremental Ebitda margin for the quarter was 60%, signalling a weaker pass-through of new revenue, they added.